Written 26 Aug 2026. This is a how-to, not a product card. Buy links are not tagged yet.

When the house share disappeared, check the leftover box

The leftover box is awake, but Finder or File Explorer cannot see the folder. Check that Samba is still running before you buy a NAS.

The share is a folder the house opens over the network. Samba is the program that serves it. If Finder or File Explorer cannot see that folder, Samba usually stopped, or the firewall hid it. You do not need a NAS for this. Check the leftover box that already served it once.

Skip until the box is awake

If ping and SSH fail, fix that first in is the leftover box still on? This note assumes the leftover box answers SSH from the couch.

Skip until a share worked once

If you never made the house folder, start with a file share on the leftover box. This note is for the morning when Finder or File Explorer cannot see a folder that used to work.

Is Samba still running?

SSH from the couch, then:

systemctl is-active smbd

You want active. Some leftover boxes also run nmbd, a helper that helps Windows find the share by name. If that service is there:

systemctl is-active nmbd

You want active. If the leftover box says the unit was not found, skip nmbd.

If smbd is not active, restart it:

sudo systemctl restart smbd

If nmbd exists, restart that too:

sudo systemctl restart nmbd

Then try the share again from the laptop or the phone, the way a file share on the leftover box taught.

Firewall can hide the share

If ufw is on, it can hide the share. Check:

sudo ufw status

If Status is active, allow Samba:

sudo ufw allow Samba

That is the same rule as turn on a simple firewall without locking yourself out. House network only. Do not forward SMB ports on the router.

Disk full can look like a dead share

Photos stop copying when the disk is full. That can look like the share died. The quick look is see if the leftover box still has room.

Still invisible?

Re-check the leftover box address and the share name from a file share on the leftover box. On Windows that is \\leftover-address\photos in File Explorer. On a Mac that is smb://leftover-address/photos in Finder. If ping leftover fails but the number still works, give the leftover box a name that sticks. Do not buy a NAS for this.

What next

Leave it. Skip a NAS. Skip RAID. Skip exposing SMB to the internet. When you want a second copy, that is a backup of the leftover-box folder.

Skip

• Skip if the leftover box is off.
• Skip if the share was never set up.
• Skip a NAS.
• Skip RAID.
• Skip opening SMB to the internet.
• Skip a second box for this check.